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The global watchdog for money laundering will set up its first rules on oversight of cryptocurrencies by June, a major step towards creating international standards for an asset currently subject to patchy regulations.

The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) said on Friday jurisdictions worldwide will be required to license or regulate cryptocurrency exchanges and some firms providing encrypted wallets, to help stamp out the use of digital money for money laundering, terrorism financing or other crimes.

Firms providing financial services for issuances of new cryptocurrencies – initial coin offerings – must also be subject to the rules, it said.

Cryptocurrencies are digital tokens whose creators say they can be used as money without the backing of any country’s central bank.

Continue reading “Money-laundering watchdog to set first cryptocurrency rules by June 2019”

Thousands of voters in Tennessee were at risk of being blocked from casting regular ballots when early voting opened this week, as officials struggled to process a surge of new registrations ahead of Nov. 6 elections to determine control of the U.S. Congress.

The delay disproportionately affected the area around Memphis, a majority African-American city, leading activists to charge the Republican-controlled state government has not done enough to protect the rights of young and minority voters.

State officials, however, said they were simply struggling to keep up with a surge in paperwork ahead of Election Day.

But young and minority voters could very well tip the U.S. Senate election between Democratic former governor Phil Bredesen and Republican U.S. Representative Marsha Blackburn.

Continue reading “Thousands in U.S. South may not be able to cast ballots in early voting”

Whoops and cheers shattered the cold morning air as the first legal cannabis customers flooded into a government-run marijuana store in this western Canada city on Wednesday.

Tucked into a shopping plaza near a dry cleaner, liquor store and a dollar store, this small, brightly lit store about 200 miles north of Vancouver has planted itself on the global front lines of the battle over cannabis legalization. It’s one of only a handful of weed stores in the country as Canada became only the second country behind Uruguay and the first member of the prominent Group of Seven nations to legalize, regulate and tax the sale of marijuana.

Dubbed “Weed Wednesday,” the event was heralded by legalization advocates who hope Canada’s new law will lend weight to federal approval in the United States.

Continue reading “Marijuana is now legal in Canada, but buying and selling weed remains a challenge”

In rulings by two federal judges this week, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos encountered some roadblocks in her efforts to roll back relief for some defrauded student borrowers who seek to cancel federal student loans.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Sallie Kim certified a nationwide class action by 110,000 former students of the collapsed Corinthian Colleges who claim the Department of Education violated federal privacy law to obtain their income data, Courthouse News Service reports.

The department used data from the Social Security Administration to eliminate full debt forgiveness for the students, forcing them to repay part of their loans.

Continue reading “DeVos’ attempt to curtail debt forgiveness to defrauded students meets judicial roadblocks”

Nomura Holdings Inc has agreed to pay $480 million to resolve civil claims by the U.S. government that it misled investors in marketing residential mortgage-backed securities, U.S. authorities said on Tuesday.

Nomura knowingly bundled defective mortgage loans into marketable securities from 2006 to 2007 and misled investors about their quality, authorities said. The settlement stems from an investigation by federal prosecutors in New York.

“This settlement holds Nomura accountable for its fraudulent conduct in connection with its residential mortgage-backed securities offerings, which caused substantial harm to investors and contributed to the financial crisis of 2008,” said Richard Donoghue, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, whose office conducted the probe.

Continue reading “Nomura to pay $480 million to U.S. over ‘fraudulent’ mortgage-backed securities”